US firm, Korean unit to pay $252M over illegal chip exports to China

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday that a U.S. firm and its Korea-based subsidiary have agreed to pay a penalty of about $252 million for what it called illegal exports of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. The department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a settlement agreement under which Applied Materials Inc. of Santa Clara, California (AMAT) and Applied Materials Korea, Ltd. (AMK) will pay the penalty, the second-highest amount ever imposed by BIS. AMAT had been exporting chipmaking equipment, known as ion implanters, to a Chinese firm, which was placed on the department’s “Entity List” for export controls in 2020. The department said that in 2021 and 2022, AMAT shipped ion implanters first to AMK in South Korea for assembly and then onward to China without applying for and receiving an export license — a shipment in violation of BIS’ license requirement. The value of merchandise shipped was approximately $126 million. The $252 million penalty — twice the transaction value — is the maximum allowed by statute, the departme

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